first of all, i’m not a fitness geek, even less so a tracker geek.
but since i need a new watch and smartwatches cost almost the same as a decent traditional watch. why not just might as well buy a watch with a few extra features?
i just bought a new mountain bike and if it so happens that an inexpensive watch can track my routes and other stuff, that would be great.
i know there’s a lot of cyclists here on this forum, so i’m curious to hear what you guys are using equipment-wise.
price range should not exceed 400$.
i’m not looking for top notch stuff, just some decent movement trackers. after all, it’s only a watch, that needs to look good. imo i’d like to know if apple watch is any good for cycling? i’ve no idea, but i do like the design.
I haven’t found a fitness tracker or smartwatch that I want for cycling. Reason: the big additional feature I want is accurate heart rate measurements, and none of the wristbands are all that accurate for when you’re actually working out. For heart rate, it looks like a chest band is the way to go.
What do you want to do with it? Right now I use a basic bike computer (distance, speed, elapsed time, odometer) plus the Strava app on my iPhone. The iPhone tracks my routes and gives me a collection of maps; Ranlee has posted a bunch of different Strava routes elsewhere on this forum. As far as I can figure, the only thing extra that a smartwatch would currently give me is an inaccurate heart rate measurement.
If your max price is USD$400, then, um, first, your definition of “inexpensive watch” is slightly different from mine, and second, you’ll be fine. The Apple Watch 3 is considered a pretty expensive smartwatch, and they’re around TWD$10,900 (USD$360, more or less).
Judging by the Wirecutter, it looks like one of the first questions is what smartphone you’re using. They’ve got different recommendations depending on the smartphone ecosystem you’re in.
The ‘cyclist’ perspective on this is that you’d be crazy to use a smartwatch for cycling. The battery life on ‘style’ smartwatches like the Apple Watch is just not good enough to power accurate GPS for the length of time you will spend on a ride. And, the HR monitor on those watches is hit or miss at best in terms of accuracy. Plus they won’t give you anything on speed, distance, cadence, etc. while you’re riding.
But you could get away with a ‘running’ smartwatch for cycling: e.g. I know there are running watches out there like the Garmin Fenix which have great battery life. These cost around $400 and do not look great. They are purpose-built for the needs of runners and triathletes, not style or wearing around town.
However, basically no cyclists take the watch route because for less than $400, you can get a Garmin 520 plus speed, cadence, and HR sensors. The 520 is the go-to GPS computer for bikes these days, and it’s what virtually everyone uses. And you don’t have to wear a watch. Who wants to wear a watch on a bike?
If you’re not sure how serious you’ll get about cycling, just track your rides on your phone for now. That’s what I did for the first couple months. Then, if you really get into it, you’ll quickly realize how worth it the 520 is.
Oo, new toys that I want … can those devices switch languages? I assume if I buy it in Taiwan, it comes with Taiwan maps, but can I switch it to English? (Chinese names for places are fine, and probably better given the oddities of pinyin; but I’d prefer an English interface.)
OP, it really depends on what you plan on using the watch for. There’s plenty of sport watches out there that do the simple GPS tracking, heart rate and some smart phone features. I can’t really say too much about specific watches since I haven’t done the necessary research, but if I were to buy one, I would be looking into the Garmin VivoActive HR, which would just be a secondary tracker for my Garmin Edge 520 bike computer.
I personally prefer sport/fitness watches to wear on a regular basis over more formal watches due to the high humidity in Taiwan and heaviness of metal/titanium straps on traditional watches.
Default language will be Traditional Chinese if you buy in Taiwan. The only other language available on Taiwanese units will be English, but I believe you can download others if one day you plan on learning Swahili or something.
If you’re unsure about throwing cash at the 520, there’s a lot of second hand ones floating around Shopee and Ruten. Something around 4000-4500NT is a decent price for the unit itself.
For a very basic unit, consider the Edge 130 that just came out a month ago.